Jim Adkins: Masonic Lodge, Los Angeles
Tuesday night, we went to see Jim Adkins play a solo show at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.This is the 4th time I've seen him play in less than 10 months - we saw Jimmy Eat World play their Futures tour in October and November and then went to see Jim play solo in February (where we met him).Unfortunately, we didn't have time to wait around to meet him after the show again, but it was awesome regardless. H, G and I stood super close to the stage - a few other girls were nice enough to let me stand with them b/c I'm so short. And we were there to celebrate G's bday (yay!).Jim's guitar playing is intense, perfectly in time and sounds bigger than just one guitar. It's clear he cares about arrangements - he's not just trying to replicate what the song sounds like with a band, but instead is sharing what the song should sound like played solo. Two very different things.His vocals are clear, his range is wide. His voice is what makes the whole thing for me, so it's awesome to hear him with just a guitar behind the melodies.And the lyrics - the song content - the themes and covers he chooses build up the emotions from song to song. What's cool is that the solo songs, the ones not on a band record, have a country lilt to them, something rockability or Wilco or Beck to them. That slides right in line with my love of country music and my love of Jimmy Eat World's pop-emo sound. He has to be putting serious thought into the whole experience, and I really appreciate that.My favorite part was when he took his first pause after the first 4 or 5 opening songs, and the sold-out crowd of 150 people went nuts. We clapped and yelled and kept making a ruckus while Jim stood there on stage looking humble, grateful and soaking in the fact that, even after 20 years of being an artist, his fans still cared, still showed up, still sang along. That's something special for any artist. And I was glad to be a part of it.The actual setlist for our show isn't up, but here's a similar setlist to what we heard and an article about the solo tour from Durham, NC.